NASA Solves Why Foam Broke Off Shuttle Tank

A full year after the Columbia tragedy, NASA has finally determined how and why the large piece of foam insulation that doomed the space shuttle broke off from the fuel tank at liftoff.

NASA’s top spaceflight official, Bill Readdy, said that through extensive testing, the agency has learned that air liquefied by the super-cold fuel in the tank almost certainly seeped into a crack or void in the foam, or collected around bolts and nuts beneath the foam.

The trapped air expanded as the shuttle rose, and blew off a chunk of foam the size of a suitcase.

Rather than peeling off, as NASA had assumed from past experience, the foam was pushed off with explosive force, Readdy said.

The space agency also had assumed the foam would fall down along the tank and miss the shuttle, but in reality, the falling foam shot toward Columbia and the left wing rammed into it, resulting in a large fatal gash.